Khata is the record maintained in the Corporation office on the ownership right of a property owner in the BBMP area. Obtaining this after a person has acquired the title to a property has become a nightmare in Bengaluru, with endless delays, pervasive corruption and official apathy.

Every person who has acquired a title to property in Bengaluru by any means, usually by purchase, but also by inheritance, gift or any other method, is harassed by BBMP officials, their middlemen and agents when (s)he tries to get the khata. This document is required for all transactions relating to loan to be taken on the property and further sale or mortgage of the property.

BBMP staff create total confusion about the documents that have to be produced for getting the khata. Thus they frighten and harass property owners and drive them into the arms of corrupt agents. BBMP officials keep changing the requirements for obtaining khatas according to their whims and fancies and do not go by what their own web site shows on this. So people with valid legal documents are asked to produce more and different documents and are kept waiting for years without the khata.  

Special commissioner holds deliberations

Many citizens who have suffered from this problem for years in Mahadevapura zone have been complaining regarding bribery, delay and apathy in the issue of khatas in this area. V Rashmi, Special Commissioner, BBMP inspected the revenue section of the office of Joint Commissioner Mahadevapura, Ramanand Rai, on 7th December 2015. A large number of residents of the area met her.

At the interaction, Gopal, a resident of Renaissance Rainbow apartments, told her: “I do not want the BBMP khata, because many people have obtained it by paying bribes to BBMP staff, agents and builders.”

Rashmi assured him and all other complainants that she would ensure that every pending application for khata in the office would be disposed of fast and properly. She said that she would put in place a system under which khatas in BBMP will be issued automatically after applications are given by residents.

She instructed BBMP staff to pro-actively contact Resident Welfare Associations and explain to them how to get khata, supply them with khata forms, help them to fill them up and to furnish the right documents, tell them how to pay betterment charges through bank draft only and how much to pay in each case, prepare the khata documents very quickly and get them sent to the RWAs and residents.

‘I don’t want Khata that didn’t follow the process’

The next day, officials of the office of Joint Commissioner Mahadevapura visited the flat of Gopal and offered him his khata. Gopal refused to take the khata, saying that he did not understand how it was prepared, when he had not filed an application for the khata. He told the officials that he would apply for his khata when the automatic system promised by the Special Commissioner is put in place and would be satisfied to get his khata document under the automatic system.

Former BBMP administrator Vijayabhaskar had directed officials to hold a khata mela in Adarsh Palm Retreat villas. This was held on 6th September and drafts for betterment charges had been collected from residents by BBMP officials of the Marathahalli office. But, even now, many of the drafts have not been encashed and many khatas have not been given to residents.

Residents from this locality complain that they are being asked to visit the Marathahalli office frequently and that khatas with mistakes and wrong entries are being given to them. Special Commissioner Rashmi has promised to tackle every such complaint and issue all pending khatas to applicants.

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